Sunday afternoon. M is sleeping, K is playing and B is golfing with D.

Not much has been going on so that's why I haven't written lately. Friday I dropped K off at S's and cleaned the house, paid bills, ran errands. We had a block party at our house that night. we had 6 families come, I think everyone had fun. Several people volunteered to host another party at their house so we'll see if that happens. People didn't leave until 11pm! I think if we didn't have kids to put to bed, they would have stayed longer! There were five girls from 2 years to 5 or 6 so they all ran around playing. I made potato salad, baked beans and brats. We also had burgers, mac and cheese, corn on the cob and brownies.

M has been sleeping pretty good. Sleeping till 3-4am and going right back to sleep. We haven't needed to get up and give him his paci in a while. :-)

No improvement on the potty training. I hope maybe when she sees kids at school doing it, she'll decide that she can too. Right now she tells us that she's scared to go poopy in the potty.

Today we worked in the nursery (6-12 months old). It was our last day with that age group. We move to the walkers/talkers for the next year. Instead of being the 4th Sunday of every month, we'll be all of Nov, Feb, May and Aug. It will be different but this way we're not in the same room as Matthew, which they recommend.

Tuesday afternoon. Kids are sleeping.

Went for my Lasik appointment yesterday. I'm not a candidate at this time since I'm BFing. Apparently the hormones from pregnancy and BFing affect your eyesight so they can't get an accurate reading on your eye. So I can't have it done for a while. I wasn't pleased with the place anyway so I won't go there when I do get it done. It's way up in Carmel and they didn't even have a Dr there to do an exam, only a nurse who could check my prescription to see if I could qualify for it. And I would need to not wear contacts for 2 weeks before I could even get the pre-op exam. Why wouldn't they tell me that when I made the appointment?? Grrrr. So that's on hold until next summer or something.

Went to the zoo with Besty and her daughters. The girls did well together. The animals were really active, even heard/saw the lions roaring. Very eerie sound. I think we'll go to the CM next week with Betsy again. She's off work until January and doesn't have other SAHM friends so she's bored. That's fine with me, she's a lot of fun.

Speaking of Betsy, IU and Ball State play each other in football on September 9th. So we're going up to Muncie for the game. Been a long time since I've been up there! I can't wait to show Brett my old dorm, houses, class room building and other hangouts. Betsy and Scott might try to come with us too. It would be so weird and fun to "break" into the DZ suite too. And of course we have to check out the bar scene.

Sunday evening, both kids are in bed and B is at the pre-season Colts game (I didn't feel like going).

Before I forget, K said the cutest thing when we prayed before lunch on Friday. We had just gone through the kid's farm area. She prayed "God, please make me a farmer." LOL!

Friday evening we went to Ben Davis for the football game. We didn't stay long, kinda hot for M. They had a "fun fair" that K went to with D&S but she was gone before we got there for bedtime.

Saturday morning we went back to the fair with D&S and John. Before we left for the fair, we were adjusting the straps on the car seat for K in D&S's car. Brett saw that they didn't have the seat belt through the car seat to keep it stable. Brett flipped out at his parents, the seat wasn't at all stable, you could move it 4 inches to each side at least (you're not supposed to move it more then 1/2 inch). We got in fixed but B was still pretty mad. Especially since we've shown them how to do it and they have the instruction manual which they've never bothered to look at. So Brett planned to talked to D again to stress how important it is to have it installed correctly and if it's not, they can't take her in the car anymore.

Anyway, Kylie had lots of fun. She did the farm thing again, and rode lots of rides. Brett tried to win her a prize doing Skee-ball, which he normally is very good at. But after 7 tries, he just couldn't get enough points and that made him mad. He tried again later and 8 more trys, still didn't win, I think it was rigged! But he did win her a few things on other games. Matthew did well, even let John and Dick carry him in the front pack. Dick got M overheated so I took him into the Ball State building to feed and cool him down.

We had to leave early for naps and because I had a MK party. Turns out, after I got to her house, that she had called (supposedly) to cancel the party a week ago. Her number had been disconnected so I couldn't confirm with her. But she does want to reschedule so hopefully that will happen.

Sunday was church and then B went golfing with his dad. I put the kids to bed and took a nap!! We went to dinner at D&S's.

Tomorrow is my appointment with the Lasik people. B is coming so he'll get his questions answered too. I don't know if we'll do it, it's certainly not in our budget but I don't want eye issues for years either. I guess we'll see what they say.

Friday afternoon. M is sleeping, K is at D&S's.

M slept better last night. Slept until 3:00am and was up again at 4 something but fell back asleep after B rocked him. Up again at 5 something. So not too bad. Better then how he's been doing.

Rainy today but we went to the fair anyway. Kylie had fun and Matthew was really good. We ate, played some games and she rode a few rides too.

I had an appointment to have my eyes looked at by a Lasik company. But I forgot the address and couldn't find it. So I re-scheduled for Monday evening. I don't think I posted here but I have a bad eye infection that got diagnosed on Wednesday. My contact in my right eye has been bothering me in the afternoon for the past month or so. Feels like sand is in my eye, extremely uncomfortable. At first I thought it was just a bad contact so I put in a new one. Same problem. So bad that I took out my contact at the Hendricks county fair and left it there! Well, the Dr said that I have an eye infection caused from over-exposure to my contacts. My white blood cells are attacking my eyeball, thinking that the contact is a foreign object. So in the morning, the blood cells were calm and my eye felt fine. But by afternoon, they were on a rampage and that's why my eye would hurt so bad. And even after I would take my contact out, it would still hurt because the blood cells took time to calm down.
Anyway, I have to wear glasses for a week and the infection can return at anytime. So I need to carry my glasses, contacts and contact solution with me everywhere in case they hurt again. Great. Oh and if the infection gets too bad, I could go blind.
So I'm looking into Lasik. It's expensive but maybe they have payment plans that we could afford. We'll see.
Kylie is spending the night at D&S's. And we're all going to the fair tomorrow morning. Fun times!

Thursday morning, Matthew is awake and on my lap, K is still sleeping.

Well, M's good sleeping habits have gone to pot the last 2 nights. I'm really hoping that he has been sleeping poorly due to a growth spurt, which normally is over in 2 days. He's been sleeping from 11-2:45. Then I feed him and put him back down. But he's been waking up at 4 so I feed him again and changed his diaper. Then he's up on and off every 3o-60 mins. I send Brett in to give him a pacifier, he settles down for a few minutes, then wakes back up. Brett and I are both exhusted and don't know what to do. I really don't want to make him cry himself to sleep, that is just heartbreaking. And how do we take the pacifier away for sleep when we use it during the day so much to keep him calm? I'm not asking for him to sleep through the night, just to sleep as well as I know he can. Is that too much????

We went to the Kid Rock concert last night at the fairgrounds. It was a very good concert. Super loud. We had very good tickets, close to the front. People kept coming up front to take pictures but then would stay so by the end of the show I could hardly see. D&S watched the kids.

Tuesday afternoon. Matthew is sleeping, K just woke up and is watching Little Mermaid.

M has been sleeping better and better since Friday. Last night he woke up at 3:45! And he hasn't been up earlier then 2:50. What a difference it makes for all of us.

Sunday we went to the State Fair. We had a great time, ate corn dog, elephant ear, sno-cone, lemon shake-up - yummy! Kylie had fun, even with the heat. Matthew slept most of the time. I was so thrilled and impressed that there was a Lactation Station there! It was a nice tent with rocking chairs, fans, free water and tee-shirts. Plus a table and puzzles for older children. Very progressive and perfect for when I needed to feed M. I sat next to a lady who is breastfeeding twins! That was inspiring.

Monday we went to see Sara and her son Joshua for a playdate. He's only a year old so too young for K to play with but she did like all his toys. K didn't take a nap and it drove me up the wall!

Today we went to Sara and Gillian's house to go swimming. It was too hot to stay for long, M couldn't handle the heat, no shade. So the girls played outside and had a picnic. Sara and I visited. G seemed to be nicer to K this time, which is good because I was considering not doing anymore playdates if it didn't get better. But she sure is bossy! Maybe it will improve once she starts school and gets around more kids her age.

Saturday night.

I don't think that dairy is the problem with Matthew and I'm more convince then ever now. Last night, as I was praying, I asked God to show me whether dairy was the problem or if he was just dependent on the paci. I asked Him to have M wake up after 3am if it was a paci problem or before 3am if it was a dairy problem. So, I'm in M's room, feeding him for the first time and it was the first time he was up that night. What time was it on the clock? 3:03am. That's a good enough reason for me to keep up with the dairy and figure something else out about the paci.

We had the golf outing today. B and I took K and M to K's art class. Then I drove up to Brownsburg to drop K and M at Nancy's house. I left my car so Nancy had the carseats and drove to the golf course with Lynk. We were late getting there and I had all the gift bags so B and Coach were irritated at me. But it all was fine in the end. I drove the beer cart, as usual. I drove it with Charles Harris. We made $33 in tips and split it. Brett's team came in 4th place!

After the golf outing, I went to get the kids and ended up staying for dinner while we waited for L and B to get finished (I left early). Then we all went to Ritters. Yummmm. And I don't feel a bit bad/worried about having ice cream. I believe God came me a very clear sign that milk isn't M's issue. That's cool!

State fair tomorrow!

I had my first MK party yesterday in a long time and it went very well! Sold a Miracle set, basic set and some other things. I was very pleased. And I got 2 bookings off it too. The party I have booked for the 19th might not happen. The lady's phone is disconnected and I don't have any way to get ahold of her. Sucks because she called me asking for the party! I did send her a note via mail to see if she would call. I hope she does.

Friday afternoon - kids are napping.

Matthew has been sleeping very poorly this past week. He is taking shorter naps which are interrupted by him crying for his pacifier. He calms right down and goes back to sleep when you give him a paci. And night time has sucked too. He's been up 2-3 times a night, just looking for his paci. He doesn't get hungry until 4ish but will be up at midnight, 1:30 and 3 for his paci. Driving me crazy. So I called his Ped to see what they suggest we do. I thought they would say "let him fuss for 10 mins" or something. No, the Dr seems to think he might be getting fussy and waking up from a upset tummy. And suggested that I cut dairy from my diet for 5 days to see if that helps. No DAIRY for 5 days?!? That will really suck. But I guess if it helps, then I'll be cutting dairy out for a long time. Ugh.

Kylie has been doing well the past few days. We've been playing a lot of "little people" toys and other imagination games. Today I was practicing my closing for the MK party I have tonight. And she sat down and started answering my questions. Kylie wanted to order some green sparkles for her face and a Curious George CD! And the first time I asked, her skin felt pretty good. The second time it felt "scratchy". I told her she needed more moisturizer and she said "Yes, I need moisturizer. And green sparkleys for my face." How funny!

Last night we took M to get his 3 month pics taken. He didn't do so well. It's so hard to pose a baby his age - can't sit up, can't hold his head up when he's on his belly, doesn't want to lay the right way, smiles at the wrong time... But we did get some decent pics.

I hope my MK party does good tonight. I need to get some more booked soon!

Tuesday afternoon. Kids are napping.

I feel like I'm losing it! Kylie is having such a bad time with PTing and I'm losing my patience with her so easily now that I think it's best if we just put the pull-ups on and wait a month or so. I just get so angry at her for having an accident that it's not worth it. When she tells me that I'm being mean, it just breaks my heart. So, not more PTing until she is more ready. Just not worth it.

M slept well last night. I fed him at 11 and he was up at 1 something for his paci and 3:30 for a feeding. Then slept until 6:30. That's becoming his standard wake-up time, which is ok. Gives me time to shower before K gets up. She slept in until 9:00 this morning, which she needed. Busy few days for her.

The house is a sty but I'm just going to clean it good tomorrow. We have our small group here so no point in cleaning it today when it will be all dirty tomorrow anyways. I did do laundry and cleaned the kitchen.

Not much else going on here.

Monday night. What a weekend.

The Bakers and Kayleigh's friend Bridget got into town on Thursday morning. We hung out and swam that day. D&S took us all out to dinner at Rick's Boatyard - everyone but the kids who babysat Kylie and Matthew. Kylie was in 7th heaven with Dillion. She just thinks he is the best thing ever. Good thing he likes her too since he couldn't get her away from him. He got her a play golf bag with balls and clubs. She pulled that thing around and played with it for hours. I took Melinda, Kayleigh, Bridget and Matthew to Keystone Mall so I could return my 5 pairs of fireman socks that accidently came with the Gymboree order I placed. I also got an outfit and teeshirt on sale. We stopped at Cheesecake factory and got some pieces for Sharon since she couldn't come with us since she was at Dick's funeral. Brett and John were pallbearers.

B's suit jacket wasn't lost at the drycleaners. Turns out it was in the backcorner of the closet and I thought it was in the drycleaning pile. B is going to stop at the drycleaners and apologize for accusing them of losing it. I feel pretty stupid but very glad that we didn't lose the jacket.

We "juliped" that night but no one got drunk. Brett and I stayed late with the kids, past 10 but then went home.

Friday B had off work so we swam. I went to the track with John and Bill who had suite passes and garage/pit passes. The suite was very nice and really nice since it was hot outside. I toured the garage area with John. Had to buy a $22 Dale Earnhart Jr shirt since I couldn't get into the garage wearing a tanktop. I had jeans and close toed shoes but needed a shirt that covered my shoulders (safety deal, I guess). Gave the shirt to Dillion. I did see some famous drivers, I never would have recognized them but John did. Got my picture taken with Kasey Kahne (very young and little), Sterling Marlin (old time driver), Ryan Newman (jerk) and some other guy. I also had my picture taken with Richard Childress who is a famous owner. And had my picture taken on the yard of bricks at the start/finish line.

Friday night was more drinking and eating. I didn't have much to drink. Barb and Alan came over plus Lynk and Nancy and some of D&S's friends. It was getting really late and I left at 10:30. Brett wanted to stay but felt like he needed to come home too. Riley asked to spend the night so I took her home and had Brett stay. Riley and I had fun trying on lipstick and having girl talk.

Saturday Brett went golfing and I swam with K while S took care of M. Everyone else went to the track. We came home for naptime and Brett finished my potato salad while I took a nap (what a nice guy). We all went to John's for dinner. We had Beer can chicken for dinner which was really good. I played my Ipod and I think a lot of people liked my music. We walked around the track area, which wasn't very busy. Then Brett took the kids home at 11, while I went to D&S's to hang out for a while. Us ladies hung out by the pool until 12:30 and Melinda drove me home since we didn't have another car there.

Sunday was the race and we just went over to D&S's again and swam more. It was very relaxing. We ate leftovers and just hung out. Got home late again. Then Monday we went to D&S's to see the Bakers off at 10. Then we went to the Children's Museum since Brett had the day off work. Kylie loved the Bob the Builder exhibit. She played in there until we pulled her out. We also checked out the new glass artist exhibit (he's really famous but I don't remember his name). Dale Childy or something. He is very talented, I was impressed. Kylie seemed to like it too.

Monday afternoon I took a long nap which felt wonderful. M wasn't sleeping well probably because he was off schedule. But he did sleep from 11-4 last night. Brett got up with him at 4 so I could sleep. Very nice treat. Monday evening B had a meeting at the high school for all the coaches this year. Kylie went to bed fine but Matthew wouldn't settle down. And I found ants in the kitchen. So combine Matthew crying and ants and I was losing it. So I called B and told him to come home, which he did. By then Matthew had stopped crying but I was still upset so it was good to have him there. I don't normally lose it like that but I was feeling very overwhelmed and the ants and crying broke the camel's back. I'm cool now.

PTing has taken a big step back. All the excitement and not being at home caused some problems. We were keeping K in pullups because she was telling us when she needed to go so she was staying dry and just pooping in them. But with all the fun she stopped telling us and I wasn't around her enough to remind her. So we put her back in panties on Sunday and she did ok but had several accidents in the evening. And today she did good at the museum but had 2 accidents at home. So we're back to the basics this week. I'll keep us all home and work hard with her again. I was naive thinking that once she decided to use the potty that we would be all done with the training!!

Sarah is having her eyes lasered tomorrow. I hope it all goes well. Mom is out there helping her. I sure wish Sarah lived closer, I'd love to go visit more. I had a great time when we went before but it just isn't something we can afford to do. Plus, I don't think 2 kids would fit well in her place!
Well, I'm tired and it's late so I'm going to bed.

Wednesday afternoon - naptime.

Is it too early for a drink?? What a day. Let me start with Tuesday.

M went to bed at 8:30 and I feed him at 10:30. Then he was up at 1:30 and I should have just given him a pacifier but I fed him instead. Then he was up again at 4:30. So not a good night for sleep. By Tuesday afternoon, I noticed he was sneezing a lot and was congested. Great, another cold.

I went to dinner with ladies from my Sunday school class. I was so happy to be invited since they were the "cool" kids in the class. We went to dinner at a nice place in Speedway called Dawson's. I got smothered chicken and shrimp cocktail. Very nice. Leftovers for dinner on Wednesday! I got a chance to get to know some of the ladies better and they were all very nice. I'm really glad that we've gotten involved in that class, definitely gives me some new friends that are easy to keep in touch with since I see them often. And it's nice to get together with people that aren't bad mouthing others and complaining about everything. Refreshing.

I got home and B said that he tried calling 5 times in the last hour to tell me not to hurry home because everything was going well. My stupid purse is so thick that I can't hear my cell phone when it's inside. Which sucks because it's a beautiful Coach purse. So I changed to a cheapo pink Target purse and surprise, I heard my phone ring several times today.

M did not sleep well last night due to his cold. I didn't feed him when I got home because I wanted to see how well he could sleep without a "dreamfeeding" - feeding when the baby is still asleep - and he was up at 12:30, 3:30 and 6:30 to eat. Plus he was up several other times looking for his pacifier. Hopefully he does better tonight.

We went to the Detwilers for a playdate. Kylie asked before we left if Nicholas was going to push her. She's so used to him pushing her at some point everytime they see each other that she knows it will happen. I told her that he might push her and just to ask him beforehand to not push her. So, about 15 mins into the playdate, she was walking over to him and he was laying on the couch. She wanted to listen to his heartbeat with the doctor kit and he kicked her in the face!!! I was shocked and so was she. She just turned to me and looked with wide eyes and then started crying hard. Val took him to timeout and made him apologize. And Kylie looked at him and said "Please, don't push me, Nicholas.". Thank goodness they didn't have anymore problems. I can't wait till Brett teaches her how to throw a headlock so she can put Nicholas on his back when he pushes her!

Picked up the dry cleaning today and they couldn't find B's suit jacket. The lady was really busy and didn't have all our order together so I just took the one suit (dropped off 2) and Kylie's dress and left. She said I could pick up the other jacket, that she couldn't find, in the morning. I get home and she had called, saying that the receipt was wrong, that I had dropped off 1 (2) piece suit, 1 dress, 1 jacket and 3 pants - total of 7 items. No, I dropped off and it's written on the receipt, 2 (2) piece suits, 1 dress, 1 jacket and 2 pants - 7 items. We argued and she kept telling me to check my closet because they didn't have another jacket, I only dropped off 1 suit. So after arguing for a while, I hung up and called Brett. He was livid, of course, and called her back. From what he could understand from the lady, sounds like they found the suit jacket and he needs to go and identify it since it wasn't in our ticketed items. What a pain. I sure hope that they found his jacket. It's a new suit so we can't have the jacket go missing.

We went to Taco Bell for lunch. As Kylie was eating her soft taco she said "I love you mom, thanks for bringing me to Taco Bell."

The viewing is tonight and funeral is tomorrow at 2. I'm not going to either. I wasn't close to Dick and I need to take care of the kids. Brett is going to the viewing after work and the funeral too.

The Bakers come into town tomorrow about noon. We were going over after nap time but with the funeral now, I'm going over earlier so they aren't alone while everyone else is at the funeral. K won't get a nap but she'll be so wired from seeing Dillion that it shouldn't matter. I need to do some cooking tomorrow to get ready for them. Pasta salad, potato salad, calico beans, lemon bars, peanut butter pie, shrimp, cherries. I think that's about it. It will be a fun time!